Charping, longtime county health education director, retires today

Published: Friday, November 30, 2012 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 1:57 p.m.

When Linda Charping took over as Henderson County's health education director in 1989, the job was pretty clear-cut.

Working with a staff of two back then, Charping's role, essentially, was teaching classes about public health issues while managing a couple of programs — maybe teen pregnancy and health promotion.

During the two-plus decades since, however, Charping and her team have seen the nature of their work change dramatically while facing a slew of unforeseen challenges along the way that led to major shifts in the role of public health education.

Whether it's been emergency preparedness planning stemming from 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, tackling the childhood obesity epidemic or responding to outbreaks of SARS, swine flu and bird flu, Charping's work has continued evolving.

“One of the great things about the job is that it's never the same thing two days in a row,” Charping said this week. “It's always changing, always challenging and different, and new opportunities come along every day that help benefit our community.”

Following a 25-year career with the county's health department and 33 years in public health overall, Charping is retiring today. Health Promotion Coordinator Trisha Stauffer will assume the position of health education director, while one of Charping's longtime staff members, Kim Horton, will assume Charping's other role of public information officer.

“I've been blessed; it's just been a wonderful job,” Charping said. “The people here are incredible — I have people who have been with me for 20-plus years (including Charping's original hire, Kaye Brownlee) — and we've had wonderful support from the health directors to even county commissioners and county managers. We've grown a lot and gone through a lot together, and we've just been able to maintain a certain level of support to this community in the things that we do. But after 33 years, you're kind of ready for something different.”

During her tenure, Charping's department brought in more than $3 million in grant money, which Charping attributes to an accumulation of numerous modest grants it receives — for public health initiatives such as Smart Start's Preventive Dental Health Program for children, a trail refurbishment at Dana Elementary School and the Childhood Obesity Prevention Demonstration Project through Eat Smart Move More North Carolina in 2008, when Henderson became one of five counties in the state to receive that funding.

“Her success over that period of time has been the ability to adapt and change,” County Manager Steve Wyatt said. “Frankly, you have to change with the times. I mean, 25 years ago, let's think about how we went about our day-to-day business ... our business is much different, and the people we deal with are much different, and those that have been successful have been able to adapt, and she's a good example of that.”

Charping said the biggest change in her field has been the federal and state governments' shift in focus to policy and environment, thereby affecting Charping's approach.

For example, she said, rather than working one-on-one with people to help them quit smoking, or working with restaurants on implementing smoke-free dining days, as her department did in the past, the effort now is a much broader one focused on policies such as the statewide smoke-free restaurant law implemented a few years ago.

“So it's really shifted from that kind of individual behavior change to working with your community,” said Charping, noting her department's collaboration with the city of Hendersonville to fund a sidewalk project on Spartanburg Highway, “trying to create environments where people can be healthier, whether that's sidewalks or greenways and trails in parks, or policies in schools. It's those policies where you can really have the greatest impact rather than just working with an individual. You still need to do both, but you do get much greater impact by doing those policy and environmental changes and that's where most of the grant money from the state now goes.

“So that's been a big shift from when I first started, and back then we didn't have degrees in political science or have those skills, so making that shift back in the '90s was really new and challenging for a lot of health educators. And it still is challenging work, making those kinds of changes.”

Moving forward, Charping said the key to further success will be collaborative community efforts between the health department and other entities such as law enforcement, Pardee and Park Ridge hospitals, treatment centers and schools to identify and address health issues, including the most pressing ones highlighted in the latest Community Health Needs Assessment: obesity, substance/prescription drug abuse and access to mental health services.

Charping said she has full confidence in Stauffer to continue to lead the way in that endeavor.

“Fortunately, I've been able to do some of that already working as the health education coordinator, so I've kind of already got my foot in the door with different committees and groups,” Stauffer said. “So, really, as a short-term goal, I'd just like to maintain what Linda had already established.”

<p>When Linda Charping took over as Henderson County's health education director in 1989, the job was pretty clear-cut.</p><p>Working with a staff of two back then, Charping's role, essentially, was teaching classes about public health issues while managing a couple of programs — maybe teen pregnancy and health promotion.</p><p>During the two-plus decades since, however, Charping and her team have seen the nature of their work change dramatically while facing a slew of unforeseen challenges along the way that led to major shifts in the role of public health education. </p><p>Whether it's been emergency preparedness planning stemming from 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, tackling the childhood obesity epidemic or responding to outbreaks of SARS, swine flu and bird flu, Charping's work has continued evolving.</p><p>“One of the great things about the job is that it's never the same thing two days in a row,” Charping said this week. “It's always changing, always challenging and different, and new opportunities come along every day that help benefit our community.”</p><p>Following a 25-year career with the county's health department and 33 years in public health overall, Charping is retiring today. Health Promotion Coordinator Trisha Stauffer will assume the position of health education director, while one of Charping's longtime staff members, Kim Horton, will assume Charping's other role of public information officer.</p><p>“I've been blessed; it's just been a wonderful job,” Charping said. “The people here are incredible — I have people who have been with me for 20-plus years (including Charping's original hire, Kaye Brownlee) — and we've had wonderful support from the health directors to even county commissioners and county managers. We've grown a lot and gone through a lot together, and we've just been able to maintain a certain level of support to this community in the things that we do. But after 33 years, you're kind of ready for something different.”</p><p>During her tenure, Charping's department brought in more than $3 million in grant money, which Charping attributes to an accumulation of numerous modest grants it receives — for public health initiatives such as Smart Start's Preventive Dental Health Program for children, a trail refurbishment at Dana Elementary School and the Childhood Obesity Prevention Demonstration Project through Eat Smart Move More North Carolina in 2008, when Henderson became one of five counties in the state to receive that funding.</p><p>“Her success over that period of time has been the ability to adapt and change,” County Manager Steve Wyatt said. “Frankly, you have to change with the times. I mean, 25 years ago, let's think about how we went about our day-to-day business ... our business is much different, and the people we deal with are much different, and those that have been successful have been able to adapt, and she's a good example of that.”</p><p>Charping said the biggest change in her field has been the federal and state governments' shift in focus to policy and environment, thereby affecting Charping's approach. </p><p>For example, she said, rather than working one-on-one with people to help them quit smoking, or working with restaurants on implementing smoke-free dining days, as her department did in the past, the effort now is a much broader one focused on policies such as the statewide smoke-free restaurant law implemented a few years ago.</p><p>“So it's really shifted from that kind of individual behavior change to working with your community,” said Charping, noting her department's collaboration with the city of Hendersonville to fund a sidewalk project on Spartanburg Highway, “trying to create environments where people can be healthier, whether that's sidewalks or greenways and trails in parks, or policies in schools. It's those policies where you can really have the greatest impact rather than just working with an individual. You still need to do both, but you do get much greater impact by doing those policy and environmental changes and that's where most of the grant money from the state now goes.</p><p>“So that's been a big shift from when I first started, and back then we didn't have degrees in political science or have those skills, so making that shift back in the '90s was really new and challenging for a lot of health educators. And it still is challenging work, making those kinds of changes.”</p><p>Moving forward, Charping said the key to further success will be collaborative community efforts between the health department and other entities such as law enforcement, Pardee and Park Ridge hospitals, treatment centers and schools to identify and address health issues, including the most pressing ones highlighted in the latest Community Health Needs Assessment: obesity, substance/prescription drug abuse and access to mental health services.</p><p>Charping said she has full confidence in Stauffer to continue to lead the way in that endeavor.</p><p>“Fortunately, I've been able to do some of that already working as the health education coordinator, so I've kind of already got my foot in the door with different committees and groups,” Stauffer said. “So, really, as a short-term goal, I'd just like to maintain what Linda had already established.”</p>